How do you make money from your digital assets?

A look into how some Ugandans have monetised their digital accounts to earn a living.

Social media Influencers denote young tech savvy people who drive conversations on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter with the view of influencing public opinion. The only difference - they are paid for what they do.

A social media influencer may go unnoticed, but commands more respect  on social media than some Ugandan celebrities, with their secret lying in the numbers.

They are among a few Ugandans who have found a creative way of monetising their social accounts to earn a living.

Esther Birungi, a social media influencer with a following of more than 84,000 Twitter users, has built a reputation utilising the platform to post social causes. Not until 2018, her life had been immersed in her legal career without any thought of making money as a social media influencer.

However, a simple suggestion from a friend to join Twitter changed her life forever. 

“My friend forced me to join Twitter in 2018. Along the way, I made some friends who initiated me into influencing,” she says.

Birungi recalls that by 2019, her Twitter account had grown enough following to join influencing, which unfortunately wasn’t earning much.

“Back then, they used to pay very little money between Shs 30,000 and Shs50,000. When you got a gig of Sh 50,000, you would feel good and yet that same amount of money was paid per month,” she says.

Thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, more events are moving online. Birungi notes in a good week, a social media influencer can earn between Shs700,000 to Shs1 million for their services. While for those that are well grounded in their trade, they have been able to sign contracts with companies to promote their products online on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.

Understanding digital assets

Uganda’s social media landscape has grown exponentially since the advent of Facebook in 2004.

The photos, videos and texts we post and share on social platforms are what Wilson Kiggundu, the Tech and Data Head at Innovation Village in Ntinda, a Kampala suburb, describes as our digital assets.

To break it down, he says digital assets can only be assets once they have monetary gain. He cites an example of a comedian who may start a YouTube channel to share comedy skits. Once that channel grows followers and subsequently attracts advertisers, then that account is a digital asset to the comedian.

Earning from digital assets:Twitter

The difference between Facebook and Twitter is the sort of people they attract. Kiggundu says influencing is one of the biggest earners for most content creators on Twitter. Your ability to communicate differently in a way that is engaging is what sets you apart to become an influencer.

Influencers mainly earn from attending and posting proceedings of events such as conferences, webinars, political rallies, or products from companies. Sometimes, it can be simply a social campaign on vices such as tobacco smoking or defilement.

For influencers who earn from their trade, it all depends on the nature of audience you are dealing with. Birungi says for instance, if you are doing a gig for a young generation, you need to be creative and post what makes the youth happy, while for the older generation, sophistication is required.

Facebook

Earning from your digital assets all depends on the kind of social platform you are using. For Facebook, Kiggundu says content creators who grow their accounts to more than 500,000 or a million likes, views or shares have the ability to earn commission from Facebook. The social platform always reaches out to those with a large following to embed its adverts on one’s popular page and provides a commission for each advert. The commission is also based on the people you engage on the social platform.

Alternatively, local companies can hire Facebook content creators to advertise on their pages, which may be on contract or a freelance basis.

YouTube also pays content creators in a similar way like Facebook. This depends on the number of subscribers one has and the nature of content you create.

Websites, blogs   

Website and blogs earn digital money through inserting Google Adverts on the web pages. However, this is only limited to websites with a good, reliable and consistent traffic. Google pays for such adverts on a pay per view basis, but also provides for retainers as long as you have the numbers.

Google adverts on blogs and websites also work in tandem with the kind of niche one has created.

“If you are a blogger and give insights on tech trends, it means your audience are tech savvy people and the adverts inserted will target them,” Kiggundu explains.

Other platforms to earn you money online include; Netflix and ITunes for movies and music.  For ITunes - a product of Apple, musicians can upload their music on the platform after signing up and, for every download, one is guaranteed a certain amount of money on commission basis. Apple guarantees you access to an audience through IPhone users.

Selling digital accounts

There is another trend of selling Twitter accounts albeit at a slower pace. Birungi says back then, Twitter accounts cost Shs300,000, but that has since changed. Currently, a good Twitter account with a good number of followers can fetch between Shs 700,000 and Shs1 million.

Kiggundu says making acquisitions of digital assets is difficult and remains at a smaller scale especially in Uganda. But to earn big after growing your account, he provides an option of partnerships with other companies or the public through listing your digital assets on the stock exchange as long as you declare a clean sheet of your books of accounts.

Growing digital assets

Growing a digital account requires time, patience, resilience and an investment in data.  People are increasingly demanding for quality content. Therefore, Kiggundu advises that for any serious content developer, you need to seek professional services and equipment to keep relevant.

“The first impression you give follows you. If you create videos, then you need video editors and professional equipment such as cameras and a good location to attract audiences,” he says.

Consistency is also key as humans tend to be wired to content that is consistent in nature.

“It is about being open minded,” she says.

“That comes with participating in current affairs but also trending activities which means you need quick flexibility. You make sure you contribute to whatever is trending.”

Remember, the audience is youthful. So targeting people within the age of 18 to 30 will bring the numbers.

1M

Cost. Average cost of a twitter account. For Facebook, Wilson Kiggundu, the Tech and Data Head at Innovation Village  says content creators who grow their accounts to more than 500,000 or a million likes, views or shares have the ability to earn commission from Facebook. The social platform always reaches out to those with a large following to embed its adverts on one’s popular page and provides a commission for each advert.